Sumter County Farmers Market

Sumter County Farmers Market. . In the late 1800s, the small farms populating Sumter County competed against each other to send their fruit and vegetables away to market. Looking for a way to sell produce which would better serve the community and benefit all growers too, the local farming community established a cooperative in 1937, which became the Sumter County Farmers Market. Today's Farmers Market continues that long history of working together for the local community's best interests. As a wink to the past, the Farmers Market honors its founders and preserves a tangible link to the Market's history, by incorporating some of the cypress beams from several of the original buildings into the structure where you stand now. Look above you, and you will see living history in some of the original beams still in use.

City of Webster

Established in 1855, the City of Webster is the oldest municipality in Sumter County, Florida. Home of the Parson Brown Orange, one of the country's best juicing oranges, Webster gained its initial notoriety for the wealth of citrus grown in the area. In a devastating blow to the economy, the Big Freeze of 1894/95 decimated Webster's successful citrus industry. Fortunately, the resiliency of the farming community rebuilt the local economy by producing a variety of vegetables, making the Webster area the largest vegetable producer in the state in the early 1900s. Today, Webster's agricultural heritage continues as home to the third largest Cattle Auction in the state, the oldest-established Farmers Market in the state, and the largest Flea Market in the state, all held weekly at the Sumter County Market in the heart of the City.